Manfred Schoof Quintet: Resonance

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Schoof led one of the first free-jazz bands in Europe in 1968 and worked with the revolutionary Globe Unity Orchestra. This set contains some of the most irresistible examples of both his slow-burn style (like the Miles of Sketches of Spain on Ostinato, with Michel Pilz's over the same dark motif) and somewhat Kenny Wheeler-like octave leaps and harmonic flexibility on faster material. Jasper van't Hof's keyboards supply a fascinating sidebar to Joe Zawinul on Weep and Cry; Source erupts from atmospheric Schoof/Pilz beginnings to flat-out high-register free-jazz; and the hard-boppish Horizons could have fitted on to a Blue Note record, until Bruninghaus's rising piano trills flow seamlessly into the pealing high-end anthems of the horns.